St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-24
AssEPUsaECAN SHEER
AIMED at the G. a. R. and Gen. Fai
Child and the New Work Tribune

child and the Ney York Tribune.
NEW YORK. April 23.-In regard to the
controversy which has arisen about its cir
cular to the Grand Army posts of the coun-
Try asking for expressions of opinion on the
| dependent pensions bill, the Tribune will
say editoriaIly o-morrow:
Now that the battle over the Tribune's
modest, tranquil and successful endeavor to
obtain from the veterans of the Grand Army
| their individual opinion the subject Of
| pension legislation has spread over the coun-
| try, it is we'll to inquire in the interest of
| peace and good fellowship who the antago-
nists are. 1t is easy to distinguish the leaders
on one side. They are those devoted friends
and close contidanteS of the soldiers who
, in their worship of reform in general
and the present administration in particular,
were lately proclaiming tn at the soldiers
| themselves deSpiSed the pensions oli and re-
| joiced i'll the veto. They are naturally un-
willing that their prophetic tenderness should
| lose its delicate bloom by being subjected to
any rude and unhallowed test, and so they
are all up in arms from Alaska to the Dry
| Tortugas, and the battle WAKES fierce and hot.
But whom are they fighting? Certainly not
| the Tribune. We are spectators looking on
with interest and amusement, and waiting
! quietly for the smoke to lift so that we can
see who has been killed. Moreover the
soldiers themselves are taking no hand in the
conflict, but are sending in their
replies to question as fast
as we can conveniently take care of
them. 1t is plaiu enough to see whom the re-
| formers suppose their enemy to be. They
are one and all absolutely certain that they
| are fighting THAT man Blaine" Any move
ment which is likely to elicit an expression Of
the popular will on any subject must, in the
very nature of things, be n movement in his
| interest to be headed Off by them ut any cost
| This accounts for the fury and the wind, and
| If, perchance, when this cruel war is over, it
| should be found that the casualties are all
among themselves, it would account for that
also. And yet they are objects of pity as we'll
as of contempt. They scarcely realize that
they are lunaticS. They have a dim
idea they are keeping their rudder true
occupies the position of a cheerful.
but it is a fact that we had some share i'll the
preliminarieS, and for the sake of the truth
we don't mind telling again just what that
share was. So many people had been rising
up to proclaim vociferously the views of the
soldiers about pensions that 1t seemed to US
worth while to take the trouble of ascertain
ing what their views actually were, and in ac-
COZ dance with our practice in such cases we
perpetrated the enormity of going straight to
headquarters. The commander-in-chief OF
the Grand Army, in referring to his general
order No. Is, instructng the members to an
sWer no questions, and to the decision of the
executive OF the council sustaining that
order is reported to have said that he
knows nothing of the Tribune'S efforts or de-
sires. 1t was cruel thing thus to InlSrepre-
sent q gallant and maimed veteran like Gen.
Fairchild. We possess the best possible proof
that he cannot have said any such thing, for
when we had determined to get the indivld-
ual opinion of the soldiers on the subject
under discussion we wrote directly to Gen.
Fairchild for q list of the Grand Army posts
and for a frank expression of his own views
about pensions. To his letter we received
through his adjutant general, E. b. Gray,
prompt and correct reply, saying that such q
list as was essential to our purpose could be
furnished from headquarters for the sum of
SIS. This was entirely satisfactory,
and having received the list and
an authentic statement of Gen.
Fairchild's hearty support of the most
liberal scheme of pension legislation, we for
warded a check for the stipulated sum, and
thus concluded the preliminary stage of the
inquiry. Our circular request for similar
expression from the rank and file followed in
due COURSE And we take this opportunity
to thank the members of the G r. for
their prompt responses to our questions.
These loyal and unselfish citizens are imi-
tating the courtesy of their commander-in-
chief by frank avowal of their personal and
individual views without the least fear of
being misrepresented by the Tribune but
vastly amused at the antics of their volun-
teer mouth-peces. They understand per-
fectly that the Tribune does not want par
tisan utterance or an official pronouncia-
mento, and they share our conviction that
the country. having been forced to hear the
professional rawlings from the reform tripod
would gladly listen to the soldiers views
from the soldiers lips.